Cost allocation
Cost allocation is the practice of attributing cloud spend to the teams, products, or features that generate it, usually through resource tagging and account structure.
Without allocation, a cloud bill is one large undifferentiated number. Tagging resources (by team, environment, service, or cost center) and organizing accounts or projects lets you split that bill into meaningful buckets — the foundation for showback, chargeback, and unit-economics analysis.
Allocation quality depends on tag coverage; untagged resources become "unallocated" spend that nobody owns.
Related terms
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